Inequality

by Larry S. Temkin

Equality has long been among the most potent of human ideals and it continues to play a prominent role in political argument. Views about equality inform much of the debate about wide-ranging issues such as racism, sexism, obligations to the poor or handicapped, relations between developed and developing countries, and the justification of competing political, economic, and ideological systems. Temkin begins his illuminating examination with a simple when is one situation worse than another regarding inequality? In exploring this question, a new approach to understanding inequality emerges. Temkin goes against the common view that inequality is simple and holistic and argues instead that it is complex, individualistic, and essentially comparative. He presents a new way of thinking about equality and inequality that challenges the assumptions of philosophers, welfare economists, and others, and has significant and far-reaching implications on a practical as well as
a theoretical level.

Genres: Philosophy

368 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 1993

About the author

Larry Temkin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, specializing in normative ethics and political philosophy.

Reviews

[Adam Ehlert · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, Temkin is trying (and succeeding) to delineate every way possible to define the notion of inequality. It is in that respect a well-written, well-argued and seminal contribution to practical philosophy and value theory. It does however suffer from the common problem of a lot of modern analytic philosophy that it is bloated with abbreviations and initalisms, and it can make the argument difficult to follow. The writing style and slight tendency to be overly repetitive made me lower the rating somewhat, but the philosophical content of this book is well worth the time.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disagree but good.